Businesses encouraged to prioritise ethics

As businesses grapple with ethics in an uncertain world, a new ‘field guide’ to ethical leadership, with practical decision-making tools for leaders and teams, has been released, featuring well-known New Zealanders and leading global businesses.

HUMANGOOD is co-authored by James Bushell, a leader in sustainable business and the managing director of MOTIF, along with Professor Karin Lasthuizen, the Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership | Aritahi at Victoria University. The book features articles on ethical leadership from Ashley Bloomfield and businesses including Air New Zealand, The Chia Sisters, and global cosmetic giant L’Oréal.

A practical, hands-on, toolkit it is designed to:

• guide and inform leaders and teams on how to approach ethics in their businesses and organisations, and
• help make ethical decisions and implement ethical policies.

It goes ‘under the hood’ of featured businesses and organisations and examines how ethics positively impact their operations. Professor Karin Lasthuizen says it humanises ethics.

“It’s a reminder there are very real, fallible people behind the organisations. In HUMANGOOD, we unpack how they consider their decisions to determine the best actions. Being ethical can be a challenging journey; it can also be rewarding, courageous, inspiring, and ultimately change the world around us,” she says.

One such case study is L’Oréal. The beauty giant has been operating for more than 100 years globally and each year sells more than seven billion products worldwide. The company was amongst the first to end animal testing in the late 1980s and implemented its first sustainability practices in the 1990s. It also has an online platform, Speak Up, where employees can anonymously raise ethical issues directly with management.

L’Oréal has 75 Ethical Correspondents worldwide, including Sarah Harper (pictured top left) in New Zealand. Her role is to offer everyday support to employees on ethical questions, help the senior management identify potential ethics risks and most importantly, handle any reports of unethical behaviour through their Speak Up programme.

Aurelie de Cremiers (pictured top right), New Zealand Country Manager for L’Oréal, says the mantras of “trust is the currency of ethics” and “ethics is the beauty of the inside” are part of the daily conversations.

“Our ethical values of integrity, respect, courage, and transparency are at our core of all our decision-making that help steer the way we work every day, right through to our overarching strategies and what we stand for. We care about the planet, our community, and our employees – so we work hard to put our values into action across the entire business, with our people and what our brands represent,” she says.

“Our L’Oréal For The Future sustainability commitments are one such example, where we challenged ourselves to do better, rather than the previous decade of doing just enough. It is no longer enough for companies to reduce their environmental impact with objectives that are self-set. In 2020, L’Oréal committed to ensuring that our activities are respectful of the “Planetary Boundaries”, meaning what the planet can withstand, as defined by environmental science.

“It is not easy; however, we are convinced our ethical values are the foundation that keeps us grounded and gives us the benchmark to constantly challenge our decisions to ensure they are the right ones,” says de Cremiers.

Author James Bushell says HUMANGOOD is a meeting place for goodness, to help people understand how they can be ethical, why it matters and how change begins – from small businesses to large.

“The insights shared from companies like L’Oréal are incredibly important and demonstrate what it takes to make a change, no matter how big or small your business is.

“HUMANGOOD is ultimately a practical guide to ethics in business and how people can integrate ethical decision-making into their business practices. This toolkit shows people how to be (and do) good in work and life, leading with real-life examples – demonstrating how one single decision can create a positive ripple effect that travels far and influences many,” he says.

Bushell says in releasing HUMANGOOD, it responds to increasing consumer demand for transparent, ethical, and genuine ethical business

“We are all at our own point in the journey towards being more ethical. HUMANGOOD shines a light on these pathways, to inspire businesses and decision-makers to incorporate ethics into their daily work,” he says.

For more about the book HUMANGOOD click here.